Homoeopathy constitutes one of the safest systems of medicine for treating common maladies such as arthritis, back pain, headache, blood pressure, and dysentery and for meeting emergency situations, which every family faces at some point of time. The homoeopathic system, by its very nature, is non-violent and non-intrusive and the side effects are almost non-existent. Homoeopathy thus represents an extremely effective means of treatment, which is simultaneously not very expensive. Homoeopathy is particularly useful in the case of children because the medicines (generally sweet_ produce no bitterness.

This volume is designed to make all the aforementioned advantages available to each member of you family. The authors' exposition of maladies and their remedies has adopted the ready reckoner style (the diseases are listed in an alphabetical order) in suggesting medicines according to specific symptoms. Remedies have been graded in order of their efficacy, laying special emphasis on certain remedies. Other significant highlights of this volume are that it provides special instructions, wherever required, and also precise potencies and dosages.

About the Author

Dr. K. P. S. Dhama is an internationally who adopts a rational and analytical approach while treating any disease. He has cured several baffling ailments, which did not respond to traditional methods of treatment. Also, a large number of his articles and case reports have been published.

Dr. (Mrs.) Suman Dhama is a trained homeopathic gynaecologist, and has vast experience in treating chronic cases. She is the author of al well-established book (in Hindi) on homoeopathy.

Introduction

Homoeopathy was introduced by the famous German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann. It is a medical science that treats the ailments by medicines which have been tested on healthy persons and then validated. The question arises: Why on healthy persons? The answer will be clear after reading this introduction This makes the homoeopathic system foolproof and safe.

Dr. Hahnemann emphasized the futility of omnibus experiments or researches which tried to provide cures on the basis of the overall disease rather than focussing on individual symptoms. This is because human beings react differently from animals and also differently from each other. This phenomenon applies to both medicines and diseases. For example, morphia makes dogs vomit and renders them drowsy, whereas it excites cats; aconite kills sheep but does not affect horses and goats; antimony proves lethal to human beings and most animals except to hogs and elephants. The same logic can be extended to human beings. Therefore, each patient will have to be treated individually on the basis of his or her symptoms.

The basis of homoeopathy is a basic natural principle. In Latin this principle is stated as similia similibus curentur ("Let likes be treated by likes") - first propounded by Hippocrates. That is to say, that to cure any disease a drug must be found which is capable of producing similar symptoms when tested on healthy humans. Or in other words, a drug can only cure that which it can produce. The common person understands it as 'poison kills poison'. This principle is described in the Hindu texts as vishasya vishmaushadham. Everyone knows that iron cuts iron and heat symptoms can be cured by heat treatment.

According to science we cannot create anything; we can simply change the form. The things which exist today are because something was already there. A drug, in its proving, can evoke in each case only what was already there, latent in the prover even as disease brings out only weak points and therefore does not affect two patients in exactly the same way. It requires many provers, of different types and different defective resistances, to bring out the complete picture of a drug pathogenesis.

It follows from this principle that the symptoms that are created in a healthy human body by taking a homoeopathic medicine will be cured by the same medicine if they are present during an ailment. For example, when a healthy person uses cannabis he/she suffers from hallucinations: one minute seems like an hour; nearby objects appear to be miles away; if the person laughs, he/she will go on doing so; if he/she starts to talk, will continue to talk; on passing urine there is cutting feeling and urine comes in drops; and the head starts aching. According to the homoeopathic principle, if in any ailment, these symptoms are present these will be cured by the homoeopathic medicine Cannabis Indica which is prepared from cannabis.

Thus in homoeopathy an ailment is treated according to its symptoms; the name of the ailment does not matter. To find out the symptoms of a medicine these are tested on healthy persons. This is known as drug proving.

Most of the substances that are used on the table as seasonings in foods will in the course of a generation or two be very useful medicines, because parents poison themselves with these substances as tea, coffee, pepper, and tobacco (though tobacco cannot be said to be on the table, yet it might as well be if it is used at all), and these poisonous effects in the parents cause in the children a predisposition to diseases, which are similar to the diseases produced by these substances.

Dr. M.L. Tyler describes the action-reaction as follows:

Every agent that acts on vitality (i.e., every medicine) more or less deranges the vital force, and causes, for a longer or shorter period, certain alterations in the health of the individual. This is termed primary action.

Although this primary action is a conjoint product of the medicinal and vital powers, it is principally due to the former.

To this primary action our vital force endeavours to apply energetic opposition: and this automatic, life-preserving reaction goes by the name of secondary action, or counteraction.

During the primary action of artificial morbific agents (medicines) on our healthy bodies, the vital force, as will be seen by the following examples, seems to behave in a passive, or receptive manner, as if compelled to receive impressions from without, acting on it and perverting its health. Then it appears to rally and to develop (a) an exactly opposite condition, if such be possible, the countereffect, proportionate to its own energy and to the intensity of the primary action. Or (b) where there is no condition exactly the opposite of the primary action, the vital force appears to "indifferentiate" itself, and, putting forth its superior strength, it extinguishes the morbid changes, thereby restoring normal health. This is the after-effect, or curative effect.

Examples of (a) are familiar to everybody. A hand bathed in hot water is at first much warmer than the other; but, taken out and dried well, it will, after a while, grow colder than the other hand (after-effect or secondary action). A person heated by violent exercise (primary action) is afterwards affected by chilliness and shivering (secondary action). To one heated the previous day by drinking a lot of wine (primary action), today every breath of air feels too cold (secondary action). Excessive vivacity after strong coffee (primary action) entails sluggishness and drowsiness for a long time afterwards (reaction - secondary action) if they are not removed for a short time by taking fresh supplies of coffee (palliative). After the profound, stupefied sleep caused by opium (primary action), the following night will be all the more sleepless (reaction- secondary action). After the constipation produced by opium (primary action) diarrhoea ensues (secondary action); and after purgation with medicines that irritate the bowels, constipation for several days ensues (secondary action).

In a like manner it always happens, after the primary action of a medicine which, in large doses, produces a great change in the health of a healthy person, that its exact opposite, "provided there is such a thing, is produced in the secondary action by our vital force.

As following the action of minute homoeopathic doses in health, obvious secondary effects are perceived very little. For though such minute doses, closely observed, will be found to produce a perceptible primary effect, yet the living organism sets up only such countereffect as is absolutely required to re-establish normal conditions.

It must always be remembered that homoeopathy is essentially an individualistic treatment. It therefore never makes use of nor seeks specifics for disease. So it must not be thought that any remedy mentioned in this book will cover all the cases.

Thus we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Homoeopathy is based on basic natural principles.
2. Medicines can create ailments.
3. In order to find out full symptoms of a medicine it is tested on healthy persons.
4. For treating an ailment we have to administer a medicine which has the symptoms that are present in the ailment.

The mental and physical symptoms created in a healthy person by administering a medicine are catalogued in the homoeopathic Materia Medica.

Homoeopathy constitutes one of the safest systems of medicine for treating common maladies such as arthritis, back pain, headache, blood pressure, and dysentery and for meeting emergency situations, which every family faces at some point of time. The homoeopathic system, by its very nature, is non-violent and non-intrusive and the side effects are almost non-existent. Homoeopathy thus represents an extremely effective means of treatment, which is simultaneously not very expensive. Homoeopathy is particularly useful in the case of children because the medicines (generally sweet_ produce no bitterness.

This volume is designed to make all the aforementioned advantages available to each member of you family. The authors' exposition of maladies and their remedies has adopted the ready reckoner style (the diseases are listed in an alphabetical order) in suggesting medicines according to specific symptoms. Remedies have been graded in order of their efficacy, laying special emphasis on certain remedies. Other significant highlights of this volume are that it provides special instructions, wherever required, and also precise potencies and dosages.

About the Author

Dr. K. P. S. Dhama is an internationally who adopts a rational and analytical approach while treating any disease. He has cured several baffling ailments, which did not respond to traditional methods of treatment. Also, a large number of his articles and case reports have been published.

Dr. (Mrs.) Suman Dhama is a trained homeopathic gynaecologist, and has vast experience in treating chronic cases. She is the author of al well-established book (in Hindi) on homoeopathy.

Introduction

Homoeopathy was introduced by the famous German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann. It is a medical science that treats the ailments by medicines which have been tested on healthy persons and then validated. The question arises: Why on healthy persons? The answer will be clear after reading this introduction This makes the homoeopathic system foolproof and safe.

Dr. Hahnemann emphasized the futility of omnibus experiments or researches which tried to provide cures on the basis of the overall disease rather than focussing on individual symptoms. This is because human beings react differently from animals and also differently from each other. This phenomenon applies to both medicines and diseases. For example, morphia makes dogs vomit and renders them drowsy, whereas it excites cats; aconite kills sheep but does not affect horses and goats; antimony proves lethal to human beings and most animals except to hogs and elephants. The same logic can be extended to human beings. Therefore, each patient will have to be treated individually on the basis of his or her symptoms.

The basis of homoeopathy is a basic natural principle. In Latin this principle is stated as similia similibus curentur ("Let likes be treated by likes") - first propounded by Hippocrates. That is to say, that to cure any disease a drug must be found which is capable of producing similar symptoms when tested on healthy humans. Or in other words, a drug can only cure that which it can produce. The common person understands it as 'poison kills poison'. This principle is described in the Hindu texts as vishasya vishmaushadham. Everyone knows that iron cuts iron and heat symptoms can be cured by heat treatment.

According to science we cannot create anything; we can simply change the form. The things which exist today are because something was already there. A drug, in its proving, can evoke in each case only what was already there, latent in the prover even as disease brings out only weak points and therefore does not affect two patients in exactly the same way. It requires many provers, of different types and different defective resistances, to bring out the complete picture of a drug pathogenesis.

It follows from this principle that the symptoms that are created in a healthy human body by taking a homoeopathic medicine will be cured by the same medicine if they are present during an ailment. For example, when a healthy person uses cannabis he/she suffers from hallucinations: one minute seems like an hour; nearby objects appear to be miles away; if the person laughs, he/she will go on doing so; if he/she starts to talk, will continue to talk; on passing urine there is cutting feeling and urine comes in drops; and the head starts aching. According to the homoeopathic principle, if in any ailment, these symptoms are present these will be cured by the homoeopathic medicine Cannabis Indica which is prepared from cannabis.

Thus in homoeopathy an ailment is treated according to its symptoms; the name of the ailment does not matter. To find out the symptoms of a medicine these are tested on healthy persons. This is known as drug proving.

Most of the substances that are used on the table as seasonings in foods will in the course of a generation or two be very useful medicines, because parents poison themselves with these substances as tea, coffee, pepper, and tobacco (though tobacco cannot be said to be on the table, yet it might as well be if it is used at all), and these poisonous effects in the parents cause in the children a predisposition to diseases, which are similar to the diseases produced by these substances.

Dr. M.L. Tyler describes the action-reaction as follows:

Every agent that acts on vitality (i.e., every medicine) more or less deranges the vital force, and causes, for a longer or shorter period, certain alterations in the health of the individual. This is termed primary action.

Although this primary action is a conjoint product of the medicinal and vital powers, it is principally due to the former.

To this primary action our vital force endeavours to apply energetic opposition: and this automatic, life-preserving reaction goes by the name of secondary action, or counteraction.

During the primary action of artificial morbific agents (medicines) on our healthy bodies, the vital force, as will be seen by the following examples, seems to behave in a passive, or receptive manner, as if compelled to receive impressions from without, acting on it and perverting its health. Then it appears to rally and to develop (a) an exactly opposite condition, if such be possible, the countereffect, proportionate to its own energy and to the intensity of the primary action. Or (b) where there is no condition exactly the opposite of the primary action, the vital force appears to "indifferentiate" itself, and, putting forth its superior strength, it extinguishes the morbid changes, thereby restoring normal health. This is the after-effect, or curative effect.

Examples of (a) are familiar to everybody. A hand bathed in hot water is at first much warmer than the other; but, taken out and dried well, it will, after a while, grow colder than the other hand (after-effect or secondary action). A person heated by violent exercise (primary action) is afterwards affected by chilliness and shivering (secondary action). To one heated the previous day by drinking a lot of wine (primary action), today every breath of air feels too cold (secondary action). Excessive vivacity after strong coffee (primary action) entails sluggishness and drowsiness for a long time afterwards (reaction - secondary action) if they are not removed for a short time by taking fresh supplies of coffee (palliative). After the profound, stupefied sleep caused by opium (primary action), the following night will be all the more sleepless (reaction- secondary action). After the constipation produced by opium (primary action) diarrhoea ensues (secondary action); and after purgation with medicines that irritate the bowels, constipation for several days ensues (secondary action).

In a like manner it always happens, after the primary action of a medicine which, in large doses, produces a great change in the health of a healthy person, that its exact opposite, "provided there is such a thing, is produced in the secondary action by our vital force.

As following the action of minute homoeopathic doses in health, obvious secondary effects are perceived very little. For though such minute doses, closely observed, will be found to produce a perceptible primary effect, yet the living organism sets up only such countereffect as is absolutely required to re-establish normal conditions.

It must always be remembered that homoeopathy is essentially an individualistic treatment. It therefore never makes use of nor seeks specifics for disease. So it must not be thought that any remedy mentioned in this book will cover all the cases.

Thus we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Homoeopathy is based on basic natural principles.
2. Medicines can create ailments.
3. In order to find out full symptoms of a medicine it is tested on healthy persons.
4. For treating an ailment we have to administer a medicine which has the symptoms that are present in the ailment.

The mental and physical symptoms created in a healthy person by administering a medicine are catalogued in the homoeopathic Materia Medica.